MPs reject Maimane's motion to raise the controversial 30% matric pass mark
BOSA leader Mmusi Maimane has tabled a motion in Parliament to reassess the 30% matric pass rate.
Image: Parliament of South Africa / Facebook
Members of Parliament have voted against the motion brought by Build One SA (Bosa) which sought to reassess the 30% pass mark threshold for Grade 12 learners.
The vote was held on Tuesday. According to reports, 119 MPs voted against the motion while 87 voted in favour of it.
In his motion, Maimane noted that the Department of Basic Education continues to maintain a minimum pass requirement of 30% in certain Grade 12 subjects, despite public concern that this low threshold entrenches mediocrity and fails to prepare learners for higher education or the job market.
He called on the Minister of Basic Education to:
- Table before Parliament, within six months, a comprehensive progress report on the work of the National Education and Training Council regarding the review of minimum pass requirements for the National Senior Certificate.
- To ensure that the department provides timelines and consultation processes for any proposed reforms to the pass mark policy, including how such reforms will benchmark South Africa’s learner performance standards against international best practice and evidence-based global norms.
- Mandates the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education to convene follow-up hearings with education experts, teacher unions, and civil society to assess the impact of the current 30% pass threshold on learner outcomes and post-school readiness, and to evaluate whether the proposed reforms align with international competency and skills benchmarks.
In response to the vote, Bosa leader Mmusi Maimane said that MPs from the ANC, DA, Patriotic Alliance, Freedom Front Plus, and Al Jama-Ah had voted against the motion.
On his X account, Maimane said: “Today we lost the vote to end 30% as a pass mark at any level in our public education system. The following parties voted to keep Bantu education standards: ANC, DA, Patriotic Alliance, Freedom Front Plus, and Al Jama-Ah. They hugged incompetence and embraced mediocrity. Now SA knows.”
The MPs who backed the motion were from MK Party, IFP, Action SA, ATM, ACDP, and ATM.
Prior to the vote, Maimane had argued that there was an urgent need for a strategic reevaluation of educational standards, advocating for a gradual increase of the pass mark to 50%—a move he believes will promote genuine academic excellence and accountability among educators.
“We want an education system that will make sure South Africans can compete with anyone in the world. But when we sit here today, the government has insisted on defending a policy where ultimately they are saying a young person can be proficient in a subject at 30%.
“I truly believe lifting the standards does not mean more children are going to fail. It means lifting the standards means we want the system to stop failing our young people so that the system can up the levels.”